Portuguese Man of War

It was then that I saw it, an enormous glistening head bobbing clear of the water. In an instant it had disappeared only to reappear at my side then another immediately behind me. I felt my heart beating loudly and my mouth began to dry out as I slowly turned for the shore I began to breast stroke I knew I couldn’t afford to blindly swim over arm into the trailing tentacles of the highly poisonous Portuguese Man of War.

Unfortunately for me I had swum into the middle of a passing shoal of Portuguese Man of war jelly fish shimmering and blue they appeared one after the other their puffy blue sails pushing up through the bottle green water they pulsed and undulated through the water basking close to the surface in the warmth of the sun.

This particular jelly fish is dangerous; this knowledge was due entirely to my recent membership to the Sea Scouts where I had been informed that due to the recent summer storms these delicate but deadly fish were likely to be in our waters. The poisonous sting was in the long trailing tail or tentacles which swept out under this strange creature as far as twenty or even thirty feet.

They bobbed around me as I endeavoured to keep as flat a profile to the surface as possible, soon I was passed them slowly kicking for the shore heading for the myriads of happy children playing safely in the shallows beside the beach.. The first sting had the affect of pushing me up through the water it was immediately followed by a series of ripping shocks which sent me from icy calm into threshing panic. I began to swallow water as another a wave of paralysis numbed my legs and my arms continued to thrash the water in a hopeless attempt to propel me towards the safety of the clamoured beach.
The sea and sky were now becoming as one there was a roaring rushing noise in my ears I was up and then suddenly down, aware of the patterns of rippled sand and small stones and shells as I was thrown along through and under the surge of the breaking surf.